Monday September 25th

The next three days marked the 1,600km trek across the plains from Denver to Chicago, which turned out to be surprisingly easy with the four-lane highways all the way through. I left early to try to avoid Denver traffic, and mostly succeeded, there wasn't a lot of slow traffic. I was already on the east of Denver, so I didn’t need to go near the CBD to get on my way. I took a route that led to I-70 rather than the I-76 further north that I would need to end up on, to avoid tolls, and to add some interest to the trip, which didn’t promise to have a lot to see that day.

I left before having breakfast to save time, and drove a while on I-70 before stopping in a small town called Bennett. I found a park with a parking lot next to a playground where I made some breakfast. There were a few people exercising, and after I’d eaten, I found, unusually for the US, a public toilet. From there I took some smaller roads up to I-76.

The territory was fairly flat with low rolling hills, and looked rather dry, a huge contrast from the mountains to the west of Denver, rather like the change in Alberta as you come down from the mountains. Most of Alberta, and the neighbouring provinces to the west seem to be part of this large plain that covers what’s called the US midwest as well. There were corn fields everywhere.

My first stop, at about 9.30, was Jackson Lake State Park, which was about 10km off the highway. I didn’t realise it was so far out of my way, or I might not have bothered going there. There was a campground there, next to the lake. I saw what I think were probably turkeys by the side of the road. It was quite still, and I think fairly warm too. The lake was large, though not especially interesting – I was spoiled after the mountain lakes! There seemed to be mosquitoes around.

I continued along the I-76 at 75mph, which eventually joined with I-80, which I would stay on for a very long way. It was very nice travelling long distances on the four-lane interstates. There were quite a few cars on the road, but generally it was easy driving, the main decisions to be made being when to pull out into the fast lane to pass the next truck. It was great not to have to wait for passing lanes or work out if it was safe to pass things.

I stopped for fuel at a little place called Brule, which had a service station just off the highway. Many of these places had their fuel prices on huge high poles visible from a fair way away on the highway, to lure people to take the exit and get fuel. Everywhere, petrol (gas) prices were in red, and diesel, if they sold it, was in green. Each exit had signs showing what services were available at that exit, including fuel, but you had to be careful, because some exits showed fuel available, but you had to drive for a while to get to the service station, so I looked out for those high poles right on the exit from the highway, so I could get fuel and keep going quickly. Later on I spoke to someone else who also had the same strategy!

About four hours drive from Jackson Lake was Lake McConaughy, not far off the highway. Like Jackson Lake, this also appeared to be a reservoir, with a big intake tower. It was pretty warm, and there were quite a few flies about, something which I hadn’t really noticed in the US before. I had lunch there, and while I was parked, a couple of police motor bikes came, and the police looked around and eventually left again. I’m not sure what they were looking for. Quite a few flies had got into the van while I was making and eating lunch, and it took me a few days to fully get rid of them. The view over the lake was nice, and I explored along the shore of the lake a little.

My destination that for that evening had been the cousin of the person who had the B&B in San Luis Obispo. When I had spoken to her while booking the room, she had been very friendly, and said her cousin lived in Nebraska, not far from where I would be driving. She later confirmed he was happy to have me stay there. I was a little hesitant about it, not knowing her or her cousin, but thought I could probably sleep outside in the van. I thought I would get to know her better while staying at the B&B, and get contact details for her cousin – I had his address but nothing else.

Since I wasn’t able to contact her, for unknown reasons, I didn’t feel good about just turning up to her cousin’s place, without even being able to get in touch first. So in the end I emailed her a note a couple of days before, thanking her for the offer, but saying it was a long drive to his place (which it was, I think it would have made for a pretty long day to get there), and politely declining the offer. I never got a reply to that either, and I don’t know if she even got it.

Earlier in the trip, after it seemed likely that I wouldn’t hear from her, I had been looking at places to stay along the route. There seemed to be a lot of them that were right on the interstate. I don’t know why they would do that. Also there were none that you could book ahead, that I found. But I rang one, Firefly Meadows RV Park, where the person I spoke to was pretty sure there would be no problem getting a spot on the day. I also had another place which looked promising as a backup.

I rang during the day I was travelling there, and was able to reserve a spot. I got there well before dark, and settled in. The lady there was nice, and I paid $50 to stay. There were both units and an RV park section. It was quite close to the highway, just off one of the exits, and you could hear all the traffic, and also as it got dark, there were bright lights on the intersection where that exit was, which lit the park quite a bit. Within a couple of minutes walk from the park was a service station which also had a Subway in it.

It was unusual for me to find a campground with any kind of store nearby, so I though it would be nice to have something other than tinned food for dinner for a change. I went over to the Subway, and found that they weren’t operating because their hot water heater was broken! That was a bit of a disappointment, what were the odds! Anyway I got a couple of cakes, and also a Twinkies bar, which I’d read about. Someone said they have no expiry date, though the one I bought did seem to have one. I had my usual tinned dinner, and settled down for bed. I wasn’t bothered by the traffic noise. It was actually rather restful, and the van was pretty good to block out a lot of noise. With the usual help of the noise generation app on my phone, I slept pretty well.

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